Korea – Busan City

I spent my next 1.5 hours enjoying my brunch at this quiet restaurant runs by a family. The main reason I stepped into this restaurant because they can speak a little English which could help me in food ordering. I still need some English to converse.

I did not take the picture of the main entrance of the restaurant. So, I missed out the restaurant’s name. I will google it and update the name and address again. And of course, the menu has its name too.

I saw a couple inside this restaurant. Both of them could be from either Malaysia or Singapore. I did not sit around them and I chose to sit further away on the tatami floor dining area.

It was pretty comfortable to sit here, breezing cold with wind coming from the main entrance. I took a while to see through the menu and decided to order their set meal, the grilled fish set meal for one person. Again, there is no issues for me to order 1 person portion.

It took quite a while for them to cook the dishes and as usual they served me with the side dishes first and free flow of plain water. The weather was cold and still they served me cold water. I wondered if I could have warm water.

Tada, my grilled fish was served. I did not know what kind of fish it was and it tasted just alright, not salty at all and did not smell stinky. Initially, I did feel that the whole portion of the set meal was quite little. However, half way eating the grilled fish, I started to feel full.

Then, I started to dive into my kimchi soup and took a few spoons. It was sweet and tasty, not spicy at all. I believed the soup based was made of fish bones, again with plenty of kimchi and pickled radish cooked with cucumber and some fish meat, I did find it delicious and go well with my plain rice.

The weather was quite cold and my grilled fish very soon started getting cold and I sped up my eating to make sure I finished my fish and the soup before getting cold. The ahjumah was quite friendly to help me to replenish the kimchi while I was slightly being entertained by the two young kids, the grandsons of the ahjumah. The kids cannot speak English but they are not shy at all.

I woke up at the usual hour on my lovely first Saturday in Busan. Since, the place I stayed did not provide breakfast, I decided to swap my itinerary to visit Jagalchi Market (자갈치시장) instead of going for a morning drink at the Jeongnangak House and cafe hopping after that somewhere in the city.

The journey from my place began at Daeyeon Station to Jagalchi Station at Line 1 took about an hour and I needed to change my train at Seomyeon Station. Upon exiting the station at Exit 10, I followed a group of ahjumah (aunties) to the market entrance.

If you ever missed the entrance, you will not miss this huge sign of the Jagalchi Market. The interesting and fishy journey began inside the few stories high of seafood market. I did not spend much time inside the market because I did not like the fishy smell at all.

I could not take the smell anymore and decided to walk the outside wet market, hoping it is much better with open-air market. The atmosphere at the open-air market is different and I found myself walking along the market to find interesting seafood products. There are a lot of these similar stalls here and I am sure you will able to find one good stall to buy the freshest seafood. I took a picture of one of the stalls which the ahjumah was shouting at us to look at her seafood at her stall.

Since it is freshest seafood place, I did not see any reasons to miss out any seafood meals here. I started my breakfast with a gigantic fishcake and a grilled fish set at one of the restaurants around this market area.

As I walked passed the stalls, I found a little push cart selling fried stuff. It was operated by a couple and I bought a stick of fish cake from them. It was the fake crab meat wrapped with fish paste, seaweeds and corn, deep fried and served hot. It was 6 inches long. It costs me 2,000₩. Besides this fishcake, they sell other deep fried stuff.

Then, I walked further down to check out food for my early brunch. I saw a few stalls inside the wet market selling seafood set including snow crab, king crab, oysters and etc. I could not make up my mind whether I wanted to try the snow crab or leave it for later day before I go back to Seoul, so I kept walking to decide. Also, I walked passed a stretch of food stalls selling similar food, the pork meat soup with pig blood. I am not a fan of pig blood, so I walked away and found myself back to the original main road.

Still, undecided what I wanted to eat while I was still biting my fish cake, I bumped into a row of seafood restaurants again. Along this stretch of restaurants, I found one with English menu and I gave it a try.

Check out my next article which I will share my review of the food of that restaurant.

After walked for an hour or so and the food in my stomach digested, I found myself landed nearby a street full of street food. The hawkers sell almost the same food, same price along that street which no cars can pass through. Many Koreans love to eat here as it is quick, easy and convenient.

I think it can be quite merry as well when you eat with a group of few people, standing together, surrounding the pushcart and eat during the cold season. But, it does not mean you cannot having your street food alone.

It is interesting to hop on at any of the stalls, eat the hot and spicy tteokbokki, (떡볶이) and steamed fish cake.

If you wish to try those stalls which you can sit inside the tent (similar to those you see in the Korean drama), you can find it here too. Personally, I did not try this in any of my visit, but they do look interesting. I did not walk further down to check what food do they sell. I would love to try it one day when I re-visit Busan with another person travelling with me. Solo trip sometimes can be quite hard to try to many different food.

After detoured to my hostel to rest and re-charge my phone and power bank, I got ready for a dinner nearby the Seomyeon Station. Having the daily pass which costs 5000₩, I was able to travel around Busan using the subway unlimited time. It is convenient to use and I am able to travel more places at anytime without hassle.

That was why I could plan my dinner further from my hostel. I took the subway from Daeyeon Station to Seomyeon Station Line 2. I took the Exit 2 upon reached Seomyeon Station and followed the Google Map to the location.

Unfortunately, I was not able to locate the restaurant when I reached the destionation. Little that I know, the restaurant is located at the back of a little alley in between two shops. The shop is selling guksu (Korean noodle) at the price of 2500₩, the cheapest meal so far in Busan. The concept in this restaurant is pay first when ordering the food, before they serve it.

It was a meatless guksu with plenty of seaweed and sesame seeds. The soup broth was clear, easy to go with the noodle. The amount of noodle was generous, no wonder so many people ordered it without extra dishes. Most importantly, the noodle did not turn soggy. As usual, the table will have a pot of kimchi, free flow for us. You can help yourself to get a cup of plain water which is also free. I saw the man in front of me walked to the counter to get some pickled radish. Although it is simple, yet it can be quite feeling without taking much of the soup.

맛있다.

The ambiance of the restaurant is decent and level of noisiness is normal. The waitress is attentive, just a little language barrier with my limited Korean. Again, there is no issues to eat alone and some walk-in patrons just sit together with me on the same table.

After spending my relaxing hours at the Beomeosa Temple, it was time to have lunch. I took the same bus back to the bus stop to catch a train to Namsan-dong for lunch. The restaurant was recommended in one of the booklet I took from the Korea Tourism Board in Singapore.

It is located quite a distance away from the Namsan subway which is one station away from Beomeosa subway Line 1.

The 30 years restaurant serves deep flavoured anchovy-broth noodle. It says that we need to wait during peak hour and during my lunch time visitation to the restaurant there was no huge crowd. Serving only guksu (Korean noodle) in different sizes; small, medium and large. There is no English menu and the waitress speaks no English.

I walked so far, of course I ordered the medium sized guksu which costs 5000₩ to satisfy my stomach. It serves with pickled radish, green chilies and a kettle of soup. It is pretty special presentation to me and to be honest, it is first time I eat in Korean restaurant which serves food in this method.

Topping the noodle with minced chili gives them a crisp taste, so I did. Yes, just a little bit and then I poured the soup into the bowl of noodle up to the level I am comfortable with.

You can drink the soup with the stainless steel cup as I saw some people did so. However, the broth is made of anchovies and it is quite strong taste to just drink the soup. It is up to individual preferences.

With seaweed and kelp, it may look simple and meatless, the generous amount of noodle for a medium sized bowl of noodle, can truly make my stomach full after a half day of long walk.

Forget to mention, the radish is free flow.

How to search this restaurant? It was a bit tricky for me to locate the restaurant after my Google map lost its direction again.

By following the map on the website I found on the spot, it is going up hill straight by walking after exiting the Namsan Subway Line 1 Exit 7. A more direct way to go up the hill will be walking down the main street until you see the hospital at the T junction, then turn left into Namsan-ro, continue walking up the hill, which took me quite some time and energy until you see a school, where you make a left turn. The restaurant is just around that corner.

Alternatively, you can take a bus to go up the hill where the bus stop is just nearby the restaurant too.

There is no issues for me to have my meal alone at this restaurant as they serve for one person too. It is just the language barrier with the waitress, yet it is not a problem at all.

돼지국밥 in English is called pork soup. It is one of the famous food in Busan. It looks like a pork boiled soup with rice. You can search online how to go to this restaurant which is within a walking distance from the subway, easy to be located or spotted and it is located nearby my hostel too.

The restaurant is located opposite of the convenient store, C & U, right at the pedestrian cross. It is easily spotted with two pigs on its signboard.

Generous amount of meat in a non spicy boiled soup topped with some spring onions, easy to eat with side dishes such as kimchi. It comes with a bowl of white rice. The kao chye or leek is raw with chili paste, it seems odd for me to put into my soup so I left it untouched. Raw garlic and onions are fine but not the raw green chilies which I left it untouched too. I’m not a fan of green chilies. Oh, they gave salted shrimps as well, which is used to season the rice. Also, I did not touch it. The side dishes can be replenished, you just need to tell the ahjuma.

The taste of the broth is clear sweet, completely non-spicy type of soup. The meat are tender and not overly cooked. I dipped the meat into the ssamjang, a Korean sauce. Except for some of the side dishes I did not like, the rest of the food on the table I finished 90% of it. It costs at 7000₩ which I think it is just good for a try.